September 27th 2004
Antec has been a favorite case manufacturer here at eBabble for some time, and with good reason. They consistently produce quality cases filled with features. With the surge in popularity of the small form factor ( SFF ) PC cases from the likes of Shuttle and Iwill, Antec saw an opportunity to produce a case that could accept the micro ATX form factor, thus allowing anyone to build their own SFF PC without the need to but the case and motherboard from the same manufacturer. The Aria is manufactured of aluminum and plastic, making for a light unit that’s easily transportable.
Lets examine the case from the outside in. Looking at the front of the unit, the case has one external 5.25” drive bay and no 3.5” drive bays. This is made up for by the inclusion of an 8 in 1 media card reader, two USB 2.0, one IEEE1394a Firewire connector and headphone and line out jacks. A small reset button and a large power button complete the front bezel. Two blue strips on either side light up when the system is on. The 5.25” drive bay has a built in cover, so it doesn’t matter what colour your optical drive is.
Moving to the rear we see a standard micro ATX layout, with the port cutout and four expansion slot covers. The slot covers were a little difficult to remove, as the top crossbar has two screws to be removed, then each slot has a small screw. The power supply fan takes the most space as it’s a 120mm variable speed fan. A standard power connector but no on/off switch. Fairly simple layout. From here you can see how the cover is removed. First the top slides off towards the rear once the large thumbscrew is removed. Then the sides can be removed by pressing the tabs and pulling each side off. As I handled the side panels I managed to scratch both sides, so be careful where you bang them.
Examining the interior shows the space available to work. The drive case sits on the top and swings out towards the front. It can accommodate one 5.25” drive, one 3.5” drive below it and two 3.5” at a 90 degree angle on either side of the centered drive. This unit is removed in the picture above. The front connections each have their own cable, so that’s three USB cables in a single row five pin block, Firewire connector and front audio connectors, plus the power connector for the lights. The media reader isn’t covered in the unit, so you can see the inner workings and must be careful not to ding anything.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
